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Crazy insecticons!
The radio waves come alive with the constant buzzing of countless agitated Insecticons, worse than any of the previous nights by far. Buzzkill says, "Uuuuuuuuuuuugh, I don't know how much longer I can take this." Onslaught says, "You didn't find what's their problem yet? If they compromise Polyhex's defenses, we will be forced to obliterate them." Mindwipe says, "We could organise a cull?" Astrotrain says, "Yeah cause bugswatting a zillion insecticons is TOTALLY how I was looking forward to spending an evening. Lucky for -me- I'm on orbital duty today." The Insecticons continue to chatter all the more in the background. Like a constant background static hiss. Needlenose says, "Holy crap, dudes, this is /awful/. I vote we make with the exterminating." Geo attempts to alternate radio frequencies to drown out the Insecticlones. Decepticon Gumby grunts, "Jeez, they're coming in to Polyhex from all over the place. Some of these streets are starting to -crawl- with them. Literally." Onslaught says, "This is still better than terran music. However, we need to deal with this now. Swindle. If you're around, I need a heavy flamer." Needlenose says, "Sunbeam's a heavy flamer! Kinda." Buzzkill says, "Nnn..I must go to Polyhex." Needlenose, to someone off radio, "Dude, yes, you totally are. Light? Fire? S'like the same thing." Imperial Spaceport The Imperial Spaceport stretches out before you in all directions. A marvel of modern engineering, it is kept in a constant state of cleanliness and order by the hundreds of janitorial droids which skitter back and forth between and around visitors' legs. The huge landing area boasts repair facilities, terminals, and some of the most modern air and spacecraft on Cybertron. Several >starships< are currently in dock or leaving, and they appear to be representative of a wide sampling of the civilizations of the Galaxy. Contents: Needlenose Rodimus Prime Derelict Quintesson Vessel Obvious exits: Fly leads to Sky above Polyhex. Launch leads to Orbit of Cybertron. Northwest leads to Forum. Mindwipe has arrived. Buzzkill has arrived. Scorn says, "There's a lot more than you think there are." Scorn has arrived. Decepticon Gumby complains, "It's these stupid clones! I hear the smart ones are showing a little more self restraint. Still think we should shoot em all and sort it out later." Needlenose says, "Only a little more self restraint?" Decepticon Gumby growls, "I dunno. -Ask- one!" Needlenose says, "Scorn, Buzzkill, are you both bats--- crazy now?" Scorn says, "Certainly not!" Some of Polyhex's city blocks have been literally -crawling- with movement as of late. The 'infestation' of Insecticons has gotten so bad in some places that more than a few structures have been temporarily abandoned as Decepticon personnel have set up shop elsewhere, their reasoning ranging anywhere from irritation at the constant chittering noise to just being plain creeped out by the presence of all the robotic bugs. The insecticlones are everywhere, the swarm spread out across a couple of city blocks and in the vicinity of the Imperial Spaceport. They nibble on the scenery here and there, but given that they haven't consumed an entire city block in the process it's probably due to agitation on their part than actual hunger. The buildings and streets are thickest with them the closer one gets to the spaceport, so thick in fact that several unlucky Decepticon troopers have been given the task of clearing the streets for heavy equipment to get through. "This is creeping me out, man!" One of them complains, transformed into an armored bulldozer mode as he literally pushes a dozen flailing insecticons off the street and into a nearby gutter. "They're everywhere!" "Get away from that!" Another trooper shouts, firing several shots at a trio of insecticlones that were chewing on a street sign. "You're telling -me-. There's gotta be hundreds of them here, and more keep arriving everytime I look. What the slag is going on here? We have no clue how to handle this, call for some backup! Onslaught says, "You mean more than usual?" Mindwipe says, "I'm sorry, what was that about bats?" Americon has arrived. Swindle has arrived. Swindle strides into the room looking to make a deal. Scorn despite being one of the smarter Insecticons, can't help but find herself lured to the city with the rest of them, though she leaves the swarm on the ground, instead fluttering aloft in the air. One could say she doesn't look very good at the moment, arms crossing somewhat and sharp fingers scratching at the paint of a forearm, clearly agitated. "Idiot clones.." She hisses, observing the amassing crowds filling the streets. "I don't like this at all." Finally she pulls her gaze away, instead looking for someone in particular while calling over the shortwave, <> Is she worried? Maybe a little. Mindwipe peers at the swarm with some interest. "I hadn't realised that it was quite so bad." Opening his chest compartment, he unrolls a set of surgical tools. "Kindly save some samples for analysis." Robots in disguise! Needlenose transforms into his F-16XL Jet Fighter mode! Onslaught is making his way towards the spaceport. He makes no special efforts to avoid the clones and from time to time he even kicks one of them as far as he can...just to make sure he's going to be ready for the next olympics. "Damn it. What in Primus name are they doing?" F-16XL Jet Fighter is soaring high above the city, watching as the Insecticons below swarm about, comsuming all sorts of random stuff. "Y-eah, lets not go down there," Needlenose comments. "Mmmhmm." "Yup," his two Nebulon partners, mounted under his wings, agree. Insecticons of course can fly, so Needlenose is ready to pull up if he needs to. The Targetmaster watches as that Bulldozer Con struggles to push Insecticons off the street. "Glad I'm not that guy." Americon hustles through the Insecticons carrying an armful of presents. "Hey, guys! Guyys! I got everybody's presents! Oh, Onslaught! I got one I'm sure you're really going to like..." However, right that moment an insecticlone snatches a present labeled, "TO: Onslaught," with its mandibles, and promptly skitters away. "HEY! HEY! That's not yours! Come back here, jerk!" Americon runs after him, trailing presents behind him. With the Insecticon clones going absolutely nuts and Shockwave's decision that their behavior is Buzzkill's responsibility, the honey bee has no choice but to follow the destructive swarm to Polyhex to do what she can to put an end to their craziness. She lands amongst the horde in her insect mode, blending in flawlessly with the thousands and thousands of the purple and black creepy crawly robots. "Insecticons! As your superior, I demand you stop this insanity immediately!" Of course, her words fall on empty ears as the clones continue their business as if she wasn't even there. This is most upsetting to Buzzkill, as demonstrated by her sudden lunge towards the closest clone who just happens to be some kind of cockroach. She snaps the inferior Insecticon in half with her mandibles and lets the pieces fall to the ground. Despite being in two pieces, the roach continues to crawl around with the rest of the swarm. Harrow has arrived. There is a dozen other places Swindle would rather be right now. Like negotiating illegal arms trading with Faddaki in the desert, or on Monacus cheating retired space-broads out of their life savings. But as much as he tried to avoid it, he was still a Decepticon, and still got dragged into things when the Combaticons were deemed a necessary measure and Onslaught managed to find him before he could make himself busy. Though his mood did brighten some upon the sight of so many Insecticons crawling about, tallies of spare parts and their potential values rattling through his processors so quickly you could swear you could hear a the ching-ching-ching of a cash register. .. No wait, you did here that. Because it's the ring tone on the hand-held comm unit he pulls out a moment later, flicking it open with all the shnazz of a businessman with his cel-phone and holding it up to his helm. "Hello~... oh, it's you Deadweight... yeah, that's all good, but not important right now, I need you to get as many empty parts bins prepped as you can find. What for?" Swindle pauses a moment as he looks towards one of the hordes. "You could say the spaceport has a case of the hives." Cackle has arrived. Onslaught looks at Swindle and asks, "Did you bring flamethrowers...big ones...?". He backhands an insecticons out of his way, "Seriously, where's Buzzkill?. That's her job to handle this." He looks over his shoulder at Americon, "You brought me what???" Buzzkill's shouted orders actually do get a moment of pause from the elements of the swarm closest to her. More than a few of the insecticlones look her way, agitated, as if caught up in some moral dilemma of some sort. Even as one of them is promptly snapped in half by Buzzkill, they STILL fail to react. And then simply resume chittering and moving along like an unyielding wave of metal bodies, sweeping her up to move along with them in fact if she doesn't take to the air to avoid them once more. The chittering and keening of the Insecticons is so loud at this point that it's almost painful to the audio receptors to hear it. The Swarm is agitated, confused...the Swarm is in distress and doesn't know why. The Swarm keeps moving towards the spaceport itself, mobbing over those who don't get out of the way. "ARGHBLBLBLBL!" Several unlucky troopers call out before they're buried under a tidal wave of insect bodies. Shots ring out a moment later as they no longer resort to warning blasts and actually start shooting Insecticons themselves! Not that it does them much good...they aren't being attacked outright but they -are- being trampled. Mindwipe pauses, watching Americon for a few minutes, then turns to Onslaught. "I can dissect him, too, if you'd like." Decepticon Traffic Controller says, "Okay. Okay we've finally got an overhead radar image set up of this mess. We've got a swarm of insecticons all concentrated in the inner blocks of the city. They're not doing much flying...mostly they're following the streets and crawling over buildings. They're heading for...uh...let's see. Looks like the Imperial Spaceport. Now why would they do that?" Contrail has arrived. Onslaught says, "... they may be trying to leave the planet? It would be more careful to relocate any ship actually at this spaceport." Decepticon Traffic Controller grunts, "Well that won't do them any good. The only ships here are a few undergoing refits and they aren't spaceworthy. Oh, and that derelict Quint warship that Shockwave and Contrail brought in a little while ago." Geo says, "... Derelict Quintesson warship?" Geo says, "Nrgh." Needlenose says, "Holy moly, it all makes sense now!" Swindle vagely nods a bit to Onslaught as he hangs up and stuffs the comm away. Why does he even have one in the first place? Private line. -Very- important around here. "You think we'll have to... put them down, boss." No that wasn't a question. Needlenose says, "Wait, no it doesn't." Decepticon Traffic Controller snaps, "Read the report about it! Shockwave mentioned it not long ago..." Swindle says, "Maybe they're in the mood for space kalimari." Geo says, "I have been busy doing geothermal energy mapping. Control, can you patch me into the orbiter satellites?" Decepticon Traffic Controller grunts, "Jeez, it's like I'm dealing with a bunch of amateurs. Don't you people ever -read- the...." Decepticon Traffic Controller says, "....blrghl..." Decepticon Traffic Controller says, "....ARRGHGBBAL" Decepticon Traffic Controller cuts off in a hiss of static. Americon yells over the chittering--he's actually very loud for his size, though that hardly helps endear him to anyone--to Onslaught, "I got you a present so that I can understand the mind of a master criminal but that BASTARD got it! Where's a smart Insecticon when you need one!?" He loses the Insecticon he had been chasing in the swarm, groans to himself, then begins wandering through the swarm, looking for anyone that can control them. Amazingly, through sheer luck and his small size he manages to weave in and out of the swarm and avoid being trampled. His search takes him right past Buzzkill as he yells, "HELLO!? Smart Insecticons!? We could of need you right now! I have to get Onslaught's present to him!" Hubcap's 'Con says "... can't say I've had the pleasure." Former Senator Americon says, "Somebody fix that guy's radio, I don't know what we were supposed to read!" Onslaught shakes his head at Mindwipe, "As interesting as your proposition is, this is not unsual behavior for him. We have more pressing matters at the moment." Then back at Swindle, "Yes" he simply says before taking off. He pulls his rifles and starts to shoot at the closest insecticons why slowly heading towards the Quint ship. "Americon... later, I'm busy." Swindle says, "One of those bugbrains didn't bite a transmitter did they.." Onslaught says, "Quintessons ship? Are they all heading this way?" "Idiots!" Buzzkill grabs another clone in her jaws, this time a beetle of some sort, and tosses it over her head into a pile of other beetle-themed robots. She's at her wit's end at this point, completely at a loss of what to do. This whole situation is so embarassing, what kind of terrible psuedo-leader is she where she can't even control her mindless minions? The longer she stays with the swarm, the harder it is for her to gather her thoughts and she eventually finds herself walking with the horde, following them to wherever it is they're being driven to go. Why doesn't she just fly away? Even she isn't quite sure. Geo says, "... this is bad. The satellite scanners seem to be going offline as we speak." F-16XL Jet Fighter is grateful to hear that most of the Insecticons are staying on the ground and not flying. That means he should be relatively safe. At the mention of the Quintesson ship, Needlenose hrms and tilts his wings, engaging in a wide turn towards the center of the Imperial Spaceport itself where the Quintesson Derelict rests. The Targetmaster examines the ship from above, trying to see whether the Insecticons are trying to get inside, or... whatever else they might be planning. Geo says, "It seems as if foreign code has been integrated into the systems." Geo's signal suddenly transmits about fifteen disconnect sounds. **ALERT SECURITY BREACH IN CENTRAL COMMAND SYSTEM ALERT ALERT ALER...** Swindle continues to follow after Onslaught, after knocking a stray Insecticon out of the way with a swing of his cannon-arm. "Excellent! I call dibs on anything left over that Mindwipe doesn't need to examination." Mindwipe shrugs at Onslaught's rejection of his idea, then transforms. Even as Vorath drops to the ground, surprisingly nimbly for a scientist, the bat is turning his hypnotic gaze upon the swarm. "Be still!" But does it work? Mindwipe folds up into a giant bat, while his head unfolds into the scientist, Vorath. Geo says, "Slaggit all... *transform sound*" Ah, there Buzzkill is... tearing apart another Insecticon, it seems, and eventually falling in line with the others. Scorn rolls her eyes, scoffing softly before soaring lower, fluttering over the crowds to try and reach the honeybee. "Buzzkill, snap out of it and get up in the air!" She hisses, hand striking out to yank on one of her antennas. "Leave it to a drone to try and run the Swarm.." She mutters in annoyance, knowing Buzz wouldn't be up to the task. True, Scorn is struggling herself, but she won't fall in line anytime soon. F-35B Lightning II wings into the area, intent on making her way to central command, where a breach has been reported. Looks like the Insecticon grunts are /restless/. Could that old, dying Quintesson have poisoned them all somehow, after all? Contrail has to wonder. The swarm keeps pressing inwards, keeps moving towards the Imperial Spaceport. A few explosions erupt here and there and Insecticon bodies are sent hurtling in all directions as some of the more angry Decepticons are deciding that it's no longer time to 'talk nice'. Still the swarm keeps pressing on, desperate in their -need- to reach the spaceport. Some of the swarm stop around Mindwipe as he makes 'eye contact' and indeed, he does seem capable of holding back the group that he latches onto. But there's so -many- of them that the rest just pile over the bodies of their hypnotized fellows and keep moving. The swarm finally comes to a stop, in a ring around the spaceport's tarmac. Chittering at one another nervously, chattering here and there. Fussing and fidgiting among themselves. Alarm klaxons start going off throughout the city like air raid sirens, just at the moment that word of a security breach has been announced over the radio waves, then was suddenly cut off. With a blade still imbedded in the back of his head, the Decepticon Traffic Controller's body is dumped over the side of the railing from his tower, his body crumpling to the street below and disappearing among the masses. One by one, the city street lights start going out. Plunging this section of the city into complete darkness. -What- is going on? Geo has arrived. Onslaught mutters for himself, "There is more to this than a simple insecticon problem." And then to the others, "We must keep them away from the Quint ship... it's our best bet at the moment." The combaticon commander drops to the ground as he transforms into his missile trailer mode and starts rolling over the insecticons on his way towards the ship. Geo says, "I do not think I am going to be able to interrupt the viral feed. I am now checking security feeds and logs; the CC watch crew has been found dead. It is as if, well... someone walked in and slew them, then entered the foreign code." Onslaught says, "Damnit, we're wide open to an attack them. Lock the city's gates and recall troops from our other bases." Swindle says, "Great, raid sirens. That's just wonderful... though good to see that increase in decible projection upgrade package didn't get squandered." Geo says, "Apologies, it looks as if this sector of Polyhex is going to be 'sensor dark' until I can debug this code." Archaeonix rasps, "My hand is forced. You would do best to keep to yourselves and not become involved. But you won't, of course." Archaeonix has arrived. Rodimus Prime drops Archaeonix . Americon is still darting back and forth through the swarm, looking for something or someone. He eventually spots Scorn yanking on Buzzkill's antenna and, frowning, runs over to them. "Hey! No antenna pulling, don't you know how much that hurts? How would you like it if someone pulled on your antenna?! Look at this guy!" He reaches back into the swarm to grab a cicada clone's antenna, but given its current state, it doesn't stop when it's grabbed and surges on anyway, even though its antenna gets ripped right off. It squeals in pain but doesn't stop. "See!? That really hurt! And those things come off!" Then the lights go out. It's okay, though, because Americon has a solution to that problem. He lights himself on fire! Did he douse himself with fuel before doing so? Where'd the fuel come from? Who knows--this is Americon after all. "Ah, much better! Now I can see again!" His short height, and the fact that the insecticlones are bigger than him, means that his light doesn't get very far, unfortunately. "Ahhh... oh, damn, I forgot it hurts how much to be on fire!" Buzzkill says, "Nnnn..that voice!" From his previous mode, Onslaught transforms into his missiles trailer mode. Scorn hisses, "HIM! Where is he?!" Mindwipe says, "Swindle, I have some of these subdued, if you have a method of containment, remove them so I can move on to others." Swindle says, "Oh just shove them off somewhere Mindwipe, we've got bigger problems to deal with..... Hmmm, I wonder if high command has put a bounty on that squid's faces yet...." Buzzkill's constitution isn't exactly the strongest, she's modeled after a worker bee after all and taking into consideration her rather subservient nature, it's not that surprising that she would fall victim to the hive mind after failing so many times to control the swarm. She doesn't seem to notice Scorn swooping over her and tugging on her antennae as she just keeps on walking. As she nears closer and closer to the spaceport, the restlessness brewing deep inside her intensifies. What is this madness?? Swindle takes a few sprinting steps to keep up, and then jumps onto Onslaught's trailer as he finishes his transformation. Grabbing onto the framework for his cannons with one hand, Swindle pulls a blocky looking machine-pistol out of subspace in the other and using it to put down any half-crunched Insecticons that manage to try and creep away from the missile-truck's wheels of steel. Former Senator Americon says, "Just a few thousand more to go, Mindwipe!" Geo says, "I have no idea who 'he' is. Decepticons, I am going to try something. *transform sound*" Mindwipe says, "I'd better be getting overtime for this." FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH! Needlenose glances behind himself. What the? FWOOSH! Neighbothood by neighborhood, the city lights begin going dark. Within another second, they catch up to Needlenose and pass him. Now it's all dark. The Targetmaster gulps silently as he reaches the Quintesson ship. "Sunbeam..." he prompts. The Nebulon responds by activating his light discharging powers, suddenly lighting up the Quintesson Derelict. This should let Needlenose take a good look at it. If the ship isn't already dangerously swarming with Insecticons, Needlenose is going to plunge into the nearest access port. Maybe the clue for the Insecticons going crazy is in here. In the command center, Geo ejects her tape form from the console and transforms mid-air; once she lands, however, the shoulder pads open and reveal Geo's jamming apparatus. "Perhaps, though the satellites are down, normal frequencies might work." Fishing some cables out of a side panel, she hooks them up to the jamming apparatus and drops to her knees, pulling open a concsole access pannel. From there, she feeds the cables into the access panel, attemping to hook her jamming system directly into the transmitter. (OOC: Rod, anything you'd like me to do to see if I can get a good connection?) If she gets a connection, she immediately begins a cyclical transmission of jamming signals on alternating frequencies, attempting to work out whatever 'frequency' the Insecticlone hive mind seems to be tapped into. Needlenose says, "I'm heading into that Quint ship. Can't be a coincidence that they're all trying to get to the spaceport just two weeks after we brought it there." Geo says, "I agree with Needlenose. I am attempting a roundabout manner of interference with the Insecticlones." Swindle says, "Considering creepy boy was poking around in the femme bugs heads not long ago either.." Archaeonix states, "That will be unnecessary. In truth, there are nothing wrong with your Insecticons." F-35B Lightning II does not go for the ship, as some people are. Instead, she goes for the traffic control tower where a body was just thrown over the railing. In fact, she will be trying to go right in that balcony. Someone a bit more intelligent than just 'swarming' put a knife in that guy's head... Perhaps there will soon be a knife in her head, too. In a transformation that is harder than it looks, Contrail rises up into robot mode. Needlenose says, "Oh, hey, yeah! It all makes sense!" Needlenose says, "And this time I actually mean it." Geo says, "And apparently I need ot jam THAT person..." Onslaught says, "What ever you're doing Quintessons, stop it right now or else..." Giant Bat implants a post-hypnotic suggestion into the minds of the group he collared. It's 'run,' for anyone interested. Then he tries to ensnare another batch, while Vorath uses a datapad to try to detect any controlling signals. Swindle says, "And while you're at it, you can pay the collect call charges for using this frequency." Geo transmits a short burst of jamming static of five microsecond pulses every .4 breems. They sound exactly like what one would expect: a burst of high pitch-then-static. There is the faintest hint of movement, on the 'peak' of the Quintesson warship where it lies berthed. The scuttling of spider-like legs and the materializing of an ovoid shape as it scuttles into view from its perch, high above the swarm and the gathered Decepticons. The spotlights that ply out from the prepared Decepticons light him, almost like a stage show, the strange looking Quintesson spinning between different prehistoric faces before settling onto that of the T-Rex skull. "Foolish children." The voice rasps out, tentacles plying against one another slowly, "Even now you do not understand, do you? But that is alright. You are not meant to. Do not come any closer to this vessel, as I now claim it for my own use. You would do well to remain uninvolved. But of course, you will not listen..." "...this is why I prepared." **The ground starts to rumble ominously underneath. A faint tremor that starts to become even more intense with each past second.* Former Senator Americon says, "Yeah! Leave our bug women alone! They may be carnivorous and treacherous, but dammit, they're OURS!" Geo says, "Slag it. I cannot get a lock on him; he must have a piece of hardware wired into the system, perhaps from the shuttle control bay." Kickback vanishes out of reality. The ground keeps rumbling, more and more intense with each passing second, until actual cracks start to peel open in the launchpad tarmac. Holes open up. And out come Insecticons. More insecticons. Hundreds of them. THOUSANDS. And they are not alone.... Missile Trailer keeps rolling towards the Quintessons ship, "The hell you're claiming it as yours squid...". With a burst of fire, the combaticon fires a missile that flies right towards the ship. It's only then that he notices the new comers, "What the??!!!" Swindle leans forward just enough to look past Onslaught's cab and up at the Quintesson ship, leveling an accusing finger at the skull faced Quintesson. "Hey, no fair shipjacking the spaceship we already shipjacked in the first place! Finders keepers and all that.... uh..." He trails off at the rumbling, sparing a glance down at the ground as he nudges back onto Onslaught's trailer-bed when YET MORE Insecticons emerge. "Um, boss. I think we might have a wee bit of a problem...." Rodimus Prime drops Insecticon Horde. Insecticon Horde Your worst nightmare. Insecticon clones. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. A seething and writhing mass of mechanical bug bodies travelling under one purpose and one hivemind. And they're HUNGRY. Americon's luck finally expires as a fresh waves of Insecticons emerge from everywhere, and he is promptly trampled. "Oh sh--REMEMBER MEEEEEE in America..." Scorn gains a look of bewilderment when Buzzkill doesn't even react to her tugging on an antenna, eventually giving up and cursing at the bee, left to flutter in place as the other move on before halting around the spaceport. It's then that an oh so familiar voice sparks up over the comm, making the mantis stiffen in mid air, wings even halting to let her land atop the back of a large beetle con. "What the hell..." Nerves start to get the better of her, optics wide and bright when the lights die out, leaving her in a sea of glowing eyes. Scorn hunches a little, like some blanket of forboding settles atop her, lower jaw splitting to chatter uncomfortably. "Screw this, I'm not letting that Quint get me again!" Like a bat out of hell she's up in the air, ready to retreat, but not before the ground splits, letting some unfamiliar army of Insecticons pour out, Scorn reeling at the sight. "Wh-What?!" Geo stops transmitting the jamming pulses. "There is nothing to jam. The hive mind must be compromised by a leader-type Insecticon." Swindle says, "... Um... well" With a rumble and a screech the rocky, ironclad ground splits open and a pair of twelve-foot-long silver horns spear up out of the tunnel, followed by the gleaming compound eyes and the glossy square black body as Shrapnel's legs churn the rubble around his entry crater. He flips up onto his end and lands on his feet, antennae spreading to permit his head to rise up between them. His nickle-plated rifle glitters in his arms. "Keep back, back!" he warns in his strangely flanged, hissing voice, sweeping the muzzle of his weapon from left to right. "The Master is under the protection of the INSECTICONS, insecticons! Tamper with him and face the swarm, swarm!" Kickback transforms into its Locust mode. Swindle says, "Either he found where we store all the errant background copies, or something -really- unexpected is going on here..." Geo says, "... WHAT?!" Geo says, "That would explain the hive mind override." Needlenose says, "Guys, GUYS, GUYS. Insecticons are pouring into the spaceport from below! I... ah, you're not going to believe this, but..." Scorn says, "This is... it's.. how is this possible??" Needlenose transmits shrapnel.jpg. Onslaught says, "This is not possible... is it. I hears this guy is a time traveler..." Swindle says, "Yeah, we see it Needlenose." Swindle says, "Some of Astrotrain's jettison found its way home." Needlenose says, "They've brought back dead Transformers before! Don't you remember the Seaco- ah heh, well, ok, nobody remembers those losers." Swindle says, "Wheeljack" Contrail says, "I remember capturing the Seasons. Blueshift claimed Summer." Hubcap's 'Con says "The Seacons? Weren't they executed once?" Galvatron vanishes out of reality. Galvatron has left. Swindle says, "Yes! But it was a conspiracy" Archaeonix states, "You have always underestimate the ability of your creators. A pity. But I am not without mercy. I give you one chance to back out now, children." Hot on the heels of the stag beetle, an enormous metallic locust bounds out of the crevice, sailing high over the rest of the horde. Kickback lands on a spire of the spaceport, then starts rubbing his massive rear legs together, sounding a terrible keening over the spaceport. "Pleeeeease!" Kickback hisses, somehow making himself heard over the din. "Fight the Master, master...I'm hungry!" The insecticon sniggers, and twitches on his perch, staring down at the befuddled Decepticons. Archaeonix adds, "You will, of course, not comply." Mindwipe says, "Well, what's in it for us?" Robotic Honey Bee was already feeling on edge when she heard the prehistoric Quintesson's voice over the radio, the memory of his inappropriate and terrifying mental probe filling her mind, but actually seeing him in person again makes her want to throw up (and not the delicious vomit she usually throws up, the nasty kind no one wants.) She snaps out of her stupor when the ground begins to rumble and crack open, the honey bee swiftly transforming into her robot mode and drawing her weapon on the new swarm crawling out of the ground. And then... is that..is that Shrapnel? And Kickback? Despite never having the luxury of meeting them while they were still alive, she recognizes them from the data files she's read. "...What? How is this even possible!?" Buzzkill transforms into her robot mode. Needlenose says, "Alright, well I for one am tired of listening to these jerkwads push us around and make us look like fools. Insecticon vs Decepticon, I know which is going to come out on top. Weapons free! Kill that Quintesson, and send Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell back to the grave where they belong!" Onslaught says, "Those... dead insecticons, probably our the source of his control over the clones. If we take them down, he should lose control over them. And we need to take this ship down." Perhaps there will soon be a knife in her head, too. With a grunt of annoyance, Geo unplugs her cables from the console and transforms back into cassette mode and lands in the console's cassette slot. The console hums to life and it begins to have six screens of data flowing. Onver a localized tacnet, she transmits <> Within the console, Geo begins to hack and decore hardcore. Geo says, "I concur." Shrapnel tilts his head back and regards Buzzkill, identifying her immediately as one of his own. "How could it not be possible? The swarm is endless, endless! Join our multitude, sister, sister." F-16XL Jet Fighter swerves away from the Quintesson ship at the last second as Sunbeam's light show reveals none ot her than Archaeonix himself. No point getting inside now, right? Right? The F-16 sees the original trio below, but so long as they're on the ground and Archaeonix is on the warship's peak, he feels he has a good chance at killing the head of this problem. "Zigzag, if you would," Needlenose says as he sweeps around for a second pass. The Nebulon complies by firing a jagged lightning bolt at the monstrous Quintesson. Who knows what electro-static discharge would do to a Quint's circuits. Hopefully something bad. Scorn's mind kind of breaks a little when she sees none other than the original Insecticons themselves rise from the crack in the ground amongst the others, left to stare with a look of desbelief. "This.. this can't be.." Now the lure works, pulling her in towards the arising duo, fluttering to land close to the head of the crowd before actually dropping to a knee before Shrapnel. Scorn thinks highly of herself, yes, but even she is humbled before them. "Shrapnel, sir... It's an honor. But how are you--?" But he answers her question by speaking of a 'Master', giving her pause while looking up with a scrutinous look. "...Master? You mean /HIM/?" A soft hiss escapes, her fists balling. "That Quintesson?? He's our enemy!" Upon landing upon the balcony, Contrail will see the back of one particular Insecticon who may be terrifyingly familiar to her even if she never met him in life... and that Insecticon, who had been just about to return to the tower, turns to face her! "Ahhh, a pretty pretty!" Bombshell rasps, fixing an evil leer upon the Decepticon triple-changer. "Yessss. I would warn you not to interfere, buuut... I know you won't! And besides, I want to have some fun! For you see, it's not enough for ME to control the swarm. I want to control... SO MANY OTHERS!" He takes a few steps forward, slowly, deliberately, like horror movie monster. Bombshell, Kickback and Shrapnel? The dead walk again! Is anyone going to be surprised that Mindwipe hurls himself at them? "What happened!? What did you see!? What did you learn!?" Archaeonix states, "The predicted response. So be it. Kickback, Shrapnel, Bombshell. You know my command." Insecticon stares across at Insecticon. If the spaceport was crowded before, it is positively -swarming- with them now. But even in the midst of all the bodies, even in the middle of the mass of forms, there are the two distinct groups. The swarm of insecticons that surround the ship in a ring...and the new arrivals. The swarm of Insecticons that now form a protective shield around the ship itself, along with Bombshell, Shrapnel and Kickback's arrival. And then it happens. Pre-determined command that isn't even spoken. It's like Archaeonix -knew- this was going to happen and didn't even have to give the order. The Insecticons Swarm. The Other Insecticons swarm as well. And utter chaos erupts. Insecticon vs Insecticon. Decepticons caught in the middle. Hundreds, thousands of blaster bolts filling the sky, explosions blossoming everywhere. Onslaught's missile towards the starship suddenly impacts a forcefield....the ship's shields are operational! When did -that- happen? HOW did it happen? And through it all, Archaeonix stands at the peak of the warship, the impassive skull of the Smilodon glaring down at the chaos that erupts below. "He gave us new life, life!" Shrapnel replies, (more) menace entering his voice. "Life is the only currency the swarm honors! Life is the only payment worth having! We consume and multiply, multiply!" He racks his launcher, a shrapnel-bomb clacking into the chamber from the rotating drum. "Make your choice! Will you stand aside or challenge us and be devoured, devoured?" Locust bounds across the battlefield again, first landing in the swarming wave of clones- and then out again! He finds another perch on a radio antenna, at which point he lets out a raspy, terrible laugh. "Join us! Join us!" he shouts at Buzzkill as rubs his spindly forelegs together. "Master knows the way, and feeds us well, well!" Shrapnel casually turns slightly and fires his launcher, the bomb arcing over Scorn and Buzzkill with a *foomp* noise and descending towards Onslaught and Swindle to detonate in a flash of fire and jagged metal shards in front of the missile truck! Needlenose says, "So, wait, /our/ Insecticon hordes were acting crazy in an attempt to... get at these bad Insecticons?" Contrail says, "Why couldn't they just say that?" Onslaught says, "I think those insecticons are controlling them." Contrail says, "Interpretive dance." Bombshell cackles as he continues to advance upon Contrail. "Oh? Wondering what happened to the poor traffic controller? Heehee, oh, I didn't harm him at all! He did it to himself, the poor fool! All because I TOLD HIM TO! Just like YOU WILL!" And at that, the shell launcher on his head fires a cerebro shell at Contrail's head. "Now YOU TOO are my servant... for a VERY short period of time! Now, FOLLOW YOUR FRIEND TO YOUR DOOM!" Geo says, "You are the third person to come to that conclusion separately. Just shoot them." Insecticon Horde transforms into its Sharkticon mode. Grenades explodes around Onslaught, knocking him on his side. He transforms back into his robot mode and shakes his head as he gets back on his feet...just in time to be hit by...something, "You're going to pay for that." he says to someone that looks like Sharpnel. Onslaught leaps towards him, bringing his fist down hard on the insecticon. From his previous mode, Onslaught unfolds into his robot mode. Up in the tower at control, Geo's tape reel continues the high-speed winding as she sifts through data and disects foreign -- obiously quintesson -- code, discarding the chunks that she is cutting out that gave Archaeonix his level of control. Still, it's disturbing to her that the Quint had so much foreknowledge of what's going on in the Decepticon's world. At this point, with the revelation of Kickback and Shrapnel's rebirth, she now wonders if Bombshell might be reborn as well. Cerebro-shells, which she's read about in archives, would do the job perfectly. Instead of focusing on that right now, though, she continues to slice-and-splice code, to try to regain control of all the dark areas of Polyhex. Scorn grimaces at the choice now given to her, eyeing Shrapnel's weapon when he loads it, the femme hesitating. Dare she join them? Abandon the empire for possibly greater things? Optics narrow suddenly at Shrapnel, Scorn swiftly transforming into her altmode and brandishing scythes menacingly at him. "I will never serve under a Quintesson. You're a fool to call him /Master/ even if he did return you to the living! Your allegiance lies here with Galvatron or back with the Allspark!" It painss her, it really does, but she's not about to let such great figures like them fall in line under a Quint's control. And then the swarms collide, Scorn screeching hungrily before leaping above the battling crowds and banking off on buzzing wings, strafing Shrapnel and lining up a shot of gooey, acidic spit right at his face. Scorn crouches before shifting into her scythe-armed mantis mode. Buzzkill always had a sort of respect for the original Insecticons even though they never really did a whole lot aside from eating lots of stuff and then dying in space in the most unspectacular fashion imaginable. She lowers her gun when Shrapnel refers to her as sister, feeling a sort of kinship with the other Insecticon but once he starts spewing stuff about the Quintesson being his master she readies her grenade launcher once more. "You're a fool, Shrapnel! The Quintesson is the enemy, you are a traitor to the Empire for following him and traitors must be executed." Before she can fire however, utter and complete chaos erupts around her. Insecticons...so many Insecticons EVERYWHERE! So many snapping jaws and buzzing wings surround her so it's no surprise that she ends up in the crossfire, taking a fair share of hits from all directions. She loses sight of Shrapnel in the chaos but finds a new target to blow up for treachery: Kickback! Giant Bat reels from the Insecticon swarm, throwing the bugs from him in a panic. His concentration breaks, as does his hold on various insecticons, who surge forwards. Contrail doesn't have very long to realise what it means that she is in a room with Bombshell. After all, he died before they took her out of cold freeze. His abilities are not exactly /well/ known to her, even though they weren't a secret or anything while he was alive. It's just that there wasn't much reason to talk about the fallen... especially the fallen who might be Cyclonus now? Add in that she's not the fastest one of the uptake when it comes to innuendo. In short, she does not come the conclusion that Bombshell cerebro-shelled the controller and made the poor sod knife himself in the head, even though the viewer surely does. So Contrail does not peroperly understand or appreciate the danger. As the cerebro shell buries itself into her her coned head, drilling through her armour and electronics, her will quickly and abruptly vanishes. Follow her friend to her doom. Optics blank and glassy, Contrail walks out to the balcony, draws her whip, and attempts to hang herself, lacking a knife. While on the balcony, she is gnawed by a locust clone, but she scarcely notices, so intent on ending her own life to please the voice in her head, is she. F-16XL Jet Fighter is so, SO glad he stayed high in the sky where the new Insecticons aren't going to come in and ravish him like they are to those idiots below. Unfortunately, Zigzag's lightning bolt against Archaeonix smacks against the ship's shields rather than turn the Quint into fried calamari like he hoped. "Blast it." Just as he's starting to turn away from the Quint ship, a flash from a whip comes out towards him, but fortunately he's still too far away. "Gah! The Insects have developed WHIP POWERS! Boys, suggestions?" "Uh." "What?" "Yes, lets teach the /loser/ of the Insecticon group how it is to roll with the top dogs!" Needlenose exclaims. The F-16 swoops over towards the locust that's shouting about joining. Needlenose transforms into robot mode, aims Zigzag downwards, and cuts loose with a second super powered circuit-destroying lightning bolt! More Than Meets The Eye! F-16XL Jet Fighter transforms into robot mode! "Comin' in hot boss!" Is about the only warning Swindle gives before he promptly turns and runs back across the trailer-bed as the grenade is arced towards the Combaticons. Only to come to more crawling up the back of the truck from behind. "How convenient!" With surprising aggressiveness for the swindler he grabs one of the clones as he jumps off just moments before Onslaught is toppled and tosses it behind him to absorb part of the metal rain, getting pelted with bits of exploded Insecticon instead. And with that he scrambles over a pile of rubble left from the mobs and hunkers down at the peak. Not -quite- hiding, but he does need cover for a moment. Reaching into his reserve of armaments, it turns out he wasn't kidding about those flamethrowers Onslaught was asking about. Except instead of a tank of petrol or such, he pulls out a canister marked as 'Thermite Enriched Napalm' and locks that into the fuel resevoir instead. It's with this that he comes back out with, super-heated flames already lickingoff the barrel as he aims it down into the steeets, trying to get as much of the horde close to Shrapnel into view. "Let's see how you boys like a demonstration of some of the most intense infammatory warfare to come from the plasma scorched deserts of Incinerous Tetra." He pulls the trigger, sending a metal melting gouting of plasma coated thermite blasting outward. Swindle says, "Well, I guess now I can officially add exterminator to my repitoir." Insecticons are everywhere. Biting and kicking and shooting one another. It's hard to tell which are which in the thronging mass of wings and bodies. And the noise, the -noise- is unbelievable as bits of Insecticon rain down all over the place, coupled with the explosions and pieces of debris spraying everywhere. And in the midst of it all, the 'new' Insecticon horde parts, as Archaeonix is on the move again. Dropping down from the ship with several careful leaps that have him descending by way of the ship's drill-like design, the prehistoric Quintesson moves amongst the swarm like a specter. His minions part to allow him to pass. Those 'loyal' Insecticons that seem to take shots at him all seem to miss their target, as if he anticipates each and every one, just happing to step here and there. A dull thrumm of power begins to fill the air behind him, as the Quint warship begins to glow softly. Its engines are warming up, its power source online. And Archaeonix strides amidst all of the chaos as if he were seperated from it, untouchable...sidling up near Shrapnel and almost casually producing a small device which he uses to jab a set of life-giving nanite regenerators into the ringleader's energon system. "Hold firm. It will not be much time now." And with that, he's gone, moving amongst the mass of bodies again as easily as a shark through the water. And the Insecticons turn up their ferver, now turning particularly vicious as they battle one another and the others. Archaeonix's swarm seems somewhat larger...he had time to prepare. Like he -knew- what he would be facing... Bombshell peers over the edge of the balcony as Contrail not only fails to hang herself, but also fails to whip a jet. "Hrrrnh," he grumbles. "So hard to find good mindslaves these days. Hrm... what!?" He gasps in alarm as suddenly a swath of Insecticlones are bathed in flame, screeching as their writhing bodies melt away! "The swaaaarm!" Unfortunately for Swindle, the salesman's pitch gives away who's responsible for that attack, and the Insecticon glares across the spaceport at him. "You'll pay for that, Swindle--and this time, with YOUR LIFE!" He loads up a mortar shell up into his head, and with a FOOMF fires it across in an arc at the Combaticon! "Yes Master, master!" And with that, Kickback again springs from his perch, this time landing beside the fossilized quintesson! He transforms to his robot mode, and then he brings out his machine gun, scything fire over the Decepticons. "Ha ha ha ha ha! All who oppose the Master must die, DIE!" Locust transforms into its Insect 3 mode. Kickback transforms into its Tiny Insect mode. Swindle says, "Lay down some supressing fire... so to speak... that stuff should be burning through their armor rather nice.. oh slag..." Tiny Insect transforms into its Insect 3 mode. Archaeonix says, "Do you see how pointless this is? How inefficient? I already know everything you intend to do. Everything you -will- do. It is a book laid out before us, and I have already read it to its conclusion. You make this harder on yourselves than it has to be. This does not even need involve you children. Soon we will be gone, and you may return to your petty squabble with your estranged kin. Shrapnel comes under a barrage of fire, as well as up close and personal attacks from hostile Insecticons! He falls back under the withering assault, using clones as a shield, a thin buzzing crackle starting to sound from his antennae as little arcs of blue light snap between the tines. The sky above turns abruptly dark and begins to swirl, clouds forming out of clear dark and drawing inwards, swirling towards Shrapnel like water down a drain. "I'll take that as a no, no." Onslaught flails to remove all the insecticons crawling over him before they can do some serious damage but there are so many of them that it's a never ending task. It's at this moment that Kickback's rounds strikes his back, denting his armor but doing otherwise little damage. Changing his tactic, he starts to fold and expend as he transforms into his battletstation mode. "Time to do some cleanup!" Onslaught targets the largest groups and fires his photon missiles. From his previous mode, Onslaught transforms into his battlestation mode. As the Quintesson speaks about his foreknowledge, Geo grunts and begins to spool her tape in the opposite direction. If he has foreknowledge of things that are going to happen, that implies that there is some kind of temporal hijinks going on in some manner, rather than just cerebro-shelled personnel. At that, Geo begins to do a set of dual analyzation; the first is a continued, though much slower, analyzation and decryption of the Quintesson viral code. The second is to begin to attempt to rearrange the localized sensors for tachyon scans; in this attempt, she dips into the chunks of knowledge the 'cons have on temporal alteration, such as the Hytherion Event and the event that brought Wheeljack back to the future and to life. It may be a waste of time, but if she can do something to alter her comrades' outcomes, then she'll feel herself more useful. It's really hard to keep track of what's going on with all the commotion, even Buzzkill is having trouble telling 'her' Insecticons apart from the others; so much purple and black and yellow, it's all very confusing. She hefts her weapon high over her head and slams it against the forehead of a charging mole cricket, unsure if it was even an enemy or one of her own. It doesn't really matter at this point, really. It's all about surviving right now. Buzzkill is peppered across the chest with bullets, courtesy of Kickback's rapid fire machine gun. Energon spews from the wounds, dripping down her body and adding to the puddles already splattered across the ground from the brutal Insecticon turf war. Not wanting to get trampled under the horde, she activates her anti-gravs and takes to the air before firing a few grenades into the chaos. Contrail somehow trips because of all the Insecticons everywhere, and the whip in her hand goes flying wildly in the general direction of Needlenose but does not connect. The voices in her head are going to be unhappy, which puts a surge of /pain/ through her, making her flinch. Contrail doesn't want the voices to be unhappy. Then, in the chaos of the battle, the shell works loose, falling out of her head. Those dully, glassy optics immediately snap into exquisitely sharp focus, and Contrail screams. Clearly hyperventilating, the fake Triple-Changer wails, "He was in my head! Oh Straxus's axe, I'm going to be sick..." Contrail coughs up a bit of energon, stricken by a nausea of the mind and soul, rather than the body. She feels weak and powerless, a stranger in her own body. Then her hands curl to fists, and she whirls and rounds on Bombshell, roaring, "You picked the wrong master to back, glitchhead!" aiming to clock the Insecticon under his mask-jaw. Needlenose ughs at how frustrating this is. That annoying Quintesson is immune behind his danged forcefield while his minions do his busy work for him! That scoundrel! Worse now, the Insecticon horde is getting more brave, now climbing up into the sky after him. "Back! Back foul demon!" Needlenose screams as he uses Zigzag to rifle-butt a clone that had grabbed onto his foot. He shakes the foot to knock the clone loose before swinging Zigzag back up, crushing the head of a beetle con. "Ugh, this is terrible!" he complains. Time to bring out Sunbeam. Needlenose holsters Zigzag and draws his light discharger gun, aiming it downwards. FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH! Huge swaths of Insecticons are going to find themselves blinded by the light. Archaeonix, "Know that I take no pleasure in this. You will of course, not believe me, but it is true. I have higher goals, loftier ones, time, it would seem, is running out and I must soon act. It is why I must resort to desperate and distasteful measures, but I assure you your formerly-dead comrades, returned to life by my own hand with the sparks of their descendants, will serve a greater purpose. "You know, in some cultures roast insectiods are considered a delicacy." Swindle continues his pitch banter even as he unleashes fiery wrath upon the Insecticons. Except there's so damn many of them even as some crumble in the melting flames others just crawl over through the inferno and promptly pile on top of the Combaticon. "Whoa, whoa! No touching the merchandise before payment! This isn't Black Friday you know." Forced to contend with booting Insecticons off his person Swindle can't do much as machine-gun fire laces through the battle and riddles holes in his hull, followed by a blast from an angry Bombshell living up to his name and sending him sprawling. Though from his place on the ground he's got a clear view of what's starting to grow overhead. Fortunately Onslaught decides to do some bug-bombing. With a grunt Swindle gets up, and then transforms. Hey, rubber tires worked for the Autobots after all! As he rolls into action his turret swivels to take aim, and crackles several times with bursts of explosive pellets into the hordes with little restraint. "Look at all those spare parts fly!" Swindle folds down and in on himself to become a military grade off-road jeep. Robotic Praying Mantis gets a little more preoccupied than she would have liked when some of the imposing Swarm comes at her yet again, two of them soaring up to attack with gnashing mandibles. She'll have none of that, meeting them with a flurry of blades, sending one sinking into the head of a bug and gutting the other along its underbelly when it passes, a shower of robo-guts and energon raining over the crowds. She's tempted to eat the one skewered on her blade arm, but Kickback sees fit to disrupt her, swathing her in bullets and forcing her to land. The mantis ruffles in agitation, plates shuddering slightly and wings buzzing before folding up, attentions shifting back to Shrapnel as he begins the summoning of a storm. Damnit, not this attack. Keen to interrupt him, she skitters fast amongst the rivaling factions before leaping at him, scythes whistling as they slice through the air to try and slash and run him through. Hubcap's 'Con asks "I don't suppose you'd care to explain your goals? 'Cause it might be, should your interests and ours coincide, we don't actually need to fight amongst ourselves?" Onslaught says, "Can someone encrypt this channel?" Archaeonix, "Ah yes. An Autobot eavesdropper." We have already been through this, Autobot. Archaeonix totally said that. Geo makes an annoyed grunting sound then just transmits static over all bands. Hubcap's 'Con: "Wait, what Autobot?" Archaeonix says, "Yes of course. -What- Autobot indeed?" Needlenose says, "Geo, girl, can't you encrypt this channel or something? Isn't that, like, a built-in power for Cassetticons?" Geo says, "I am not built with that function." Bombshell cackles as his shell finds its mark, but he delighted overmuch in hurting the Combaticon and left himself vulnerable to counterattack by Contrail! "What--OOFGH!" The fist gets him right under the jaw and knocks him over onto his aft. "Arrrrgh, accursed wench! It is YOU who is the fool! Our new master has an unrivaled mastery of the sciences. Restoring US was but a parlor trick to him!" Rising up, he tries to run back into the control tower, firing scattered shots at Contrail as he flees. "And besides, YOUR master is a deranged lunatic! Why would we serve one as likely to destroy us as the Autobots!?" "You show great loyalty for Insecticons, insecticons!" Shrapnel sneers at the two females, his plasma-seared armor pitted by Buzzkill's frag splinters, and his forearms slashed deeply by Scorn's hissing raptorial appendages! He kicks her back to make room, shoving a Bombshell clone between himself and her. The artificial storm forming overhead swirls and booms, cloud-to-cloud lightning cracking between the arms of the spiral. "A choice WE cannot afford, afford! It is only a matter of LIFE... and DEATH, death!" He raises his arms to the sky and a blinding, continual barrage of lightning blasts down in stuttering thunderstrokes, drawn into his antennae and coursing through his specialized power channels. He thrusts out his hands and the lightning leaps from his fingers and palms, springing between Decepticons and Insecticlones from both sides, melting pits into the metallic terrain where it goes to ground. Swaths of Insecticons are blasted away as the Decepticons do their best to pick out of the horde. In truth, if this was involving Autobots and some allies of their own it would probably be more difficult... ...but most Decepticons couldn't care less if they blasted a 'friendly' Insecticon in addition to an enemy one. Better to blow the pair of them away and not worry about sorting it out. Needlenose's bathing light indeed blinds a large chunk of the Insecticon horde, causing them to screech in pain as their optics are overloaded. It also causes them to swarm STRAIGHT up for him, like moths drawn to a flame. And the delicious, DELICIOUS light! The Quint keeps moving amongst the masses, now stopping near Kickback and producing another device with a similar injection to deliver to the Insecticon's systems. "Almost...." The ship continues to glow more brightly as power thrums through its systems. The air starting to vibrate just slightly.... Even as a large chunk of the swarm goes STRAIGHT for Needlenose and his tasty DELICIOUS light! Onslaught says, "Decepticons. Those stuck on the ground in the next minutes should really, really, go airborn. I'm going to nuke everything on the ground." Geo says, "I think... I have something..." Geo spouts out some insane, obscure formulae that anyone with a decent Int or Tech would note includes the words 'tachyon imprint'. Kickback reels! The combined Combaticon firepower sends him tumbling end over end, back into the horde- he lands hard upon a beetle Insecticon- though it's unclear what side the unfortunate one is on! He gasps, damaged...until the Quintesson obligingly delivers that injection. "Thank you, Master!" Kickback springs to his feet- and then he's transforming again, this time leaping at the biggest, tastiest-looking target he can find: Onslaught! Kickback transforms into its Locust mode. Giant Bat frowns to himself, watching things unfold with great interest, and starts to pick his way towards the Quintesson. But then Onslaught gives his warning, and he leaps into the air, Vorath clinging desperately to a wingtip. "My ions!" Contrails exclaims, dismayed. Lightning sears through her and most things. Mulishly, she argues, "You're serving a lunatic, too - a /homeless/ lunatic. The Empire already has most of Cybertron and Charr, too," and a Dyson Ring, but only the Sweeps care about that, "A lunatic from a dying species! The universe will hunt you down and fell you all, simply for serving him. Don't believe me? Species that couldn't even stand a chance against Quintessons have been taking them down lately. The Quintessons are /weak/. Bending a knee to weakness is, itself, weakness." She vaults off the balcony, transforms, and flies back for a strafing run. "Being hit by missiles is also a weakness!" Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit. Hubcap says, "would understand the tech-talk, but he seems to be persona non grata on this frequency." Well, THAT'S interesting. Geo's scans have turned up something promising. Geo debates sending something over the localized tacnet, and THEN debates the feasibility that the Quintesson, if he DOES exist in the 'now' and in the 'then' simultaneously, will already know what she's trying to do and have accounted for it. Well, that's something for theoretical quantum mechanics to figure out. In this instance, though, it's better to try it... theoretics be damned. Sure, she could crack the planet and suck it into a supermassive black hole if she screws up. But Geo is nothing if not adventurous. At that, all of the screens in the command center light up and begin to run heavy calculations; on one lonesome screen off to the side is the continued debugging, but the rest of them have rather odd energy wavelength formulae running down their screens. There's not a lot of hope in the little Cassettecon's mind, but she begins to put ALL processing power from command into analyzation of the similar energy output that she's detected. Buzzkill hovers above the swarming chaos, taking a moment to pop a few more grenades into her launcher. There are so many Insecticons, just an endless swarm of robot bugs that don't seem to go away no matter how many you shoot. It's all very distressing, but not nearly as distressing as the sudden shock of lightning that surges through her body thanks to Shrapnel's crazy electrical prowess. Yes, it's exactly like what she read except a lot more painful than she expected it to be. The shock knocks her right out of the sky, the honey bee Insecticon falling back into the writhing mass of warring Insecticons, but even a shock from Shrapnel isn't enough to keep her down. Without missing a beat, she lunges for the sometimes leader, sometimes second to Bombshell Insecticon; swinging her grenade launcher like a baseball bat to crack him right across the face. "Following the orders of a Quintesson.. you are an embarassment to Insecticons everywhere!" Hubcap says, " Imagine I posed that." Archaeonix says, "Yes, but do you -understand- what you see, little one? Can you fathom it? None of you can. Not even your best minds can dabble into the things I have experimented on and...perfected over a very, very, very long time. Those of your race who have ever come the closest have only discovered the barest hint of what there is to see." There were rare occasions when even Swindle started to feel some of that exhileration of combat as his brethern. This was one of them. Less the combat itself though, and more the satisfaction of knowing that his impromptu barbeque really left a message. He may not be as tough as Brawl or crazed as Vortex, but you want to think twice about messing with the guy who's not only the salesman but also a client of high grade munitions all the same. As he careens around the hordes, trying to herd them together with his timed shots, a lightning blast crackles over head. And strikes one of the shuttle refueling depots behind him, the resulting electrical feulded explosion sending the jeep rolling end over end in a fiery blaze before Swindle finally more or less tumbles out of it into robot mode. "Okay, so that idea doesn't work when the lightning doesn't even hit your rubber." Ouch. With a groan he kicks in his anti-gravs and pushes himself into the air. Listening for a moment, and then while somewhat pained his smirk returns, optics glinting. "Well, well, I guess there's only one option." Instead of the plasma-thrower, or even his own arm-cannon, Swindle pulls out... his dinky little gyro pistol. "Sometimes the deadliest gun is the most unassuming," he muses as he aims towards Shrapnel and fires the disruptive weapon. The jeep flips back and up, revealing a lean mean black market machine. You receive a radio message from Geo: The Quintesson is cloaked in an energy field that resembles the tachyon pulse energy relevant to the Hytherion Incident and the time travel incident that returned Wheeljack to the Autobot living. I am theorizing that the Quintesson exists in the 'now' and the 'then' for lack of better terms. Needlenose's smirk of triumph as the Insecticons are blinded by the light slowly fades into one of shock and horror as, oh God, the Insecticons start chasing after him. "They're comin' right for us!" he screams. Needlenose turns and high tails it out of there. There's a good chase he would have made it, too, were it not for lightning suddenly filling the sky. tOne bolt fries Needlenose, lighting him up like a Christmas tree and causing his anti-gravs to suddenly short out. He feels his ascent fading even as the Insecticons race up towards him. "No no no no," he whimpers, looking behind him and finding he's powerless to stop them from catching up. At the last second, Needlenose twists and turns, lashing out with his arms and legs. He crushes the first with a boot to the head, but the second one grabs his feet. From there's all down hill, as Needlenose finds himself swarmed in mid-air, flailing wildly. Where there was once Needlenose, now there is just a dense swarm of purple, black, and gold. Robotic Praying Mantis swears that guy is like some sentient bugzapper, which is ironic given he's a bug too. Although all she can think of right now is pain, sensors feeling on fire when the artificial lightning hits her, coarsing through her systems, making her cry out while spasming in place. Optics are alight, flickering heavily, but they ultimately dim when the electricity dies out, leaving her to fall over, twitching heavily still with small jolts arching along her armor and between antennas. A few sturdier bots may have shaken the feeling off a little sooner, but her build is rather frail, leaving her to ride out the stun a little longer than most. You send a radio message to Geo: Interesting... but how to we take him down? Battlestation circuits are nearly fried Shrapnel's attack and Kickback starts eating his armor which is not fun at all. Onslaught transforms back into his robot mode, throwing the insecticon off balance (hopefully) before raising into the air. A small trap slide on his left forearm and he picks what seem to be like a small handsized device with a blinking red light on it. Onslaught pushes a button on it and drops it towards Archaeonix, "Predict this squid!" From his previous mode, Onslaught unfolds into his robot mode. You receive a radio message from Swindle: Light 'em up boss! You receive a radio message from Geo: I have no idea. Yet. He is taunting me, as you obiously heard; right now I am analyzing the energy and attempting to create a counter-flux energy wave, but this theory is most likely beyond anything that I can come up with. Geo says, "I have realized that you most likely exist in the 'now' and the 'then,' Quintesson, which accounts for your capability to accurately predict with 99.999999~% accuracy what we are doing." Hubcap's 'Con says "Fancies himself a little, this one, doesn't he?" Archaeonix says, "A predictable and logical assumption based on the evidence you have." Archaeonix says, "But sadly incorrect." Geo says, "Then enlighten me, O Squiddy One." Geo says, "For I am nothing if not a voracious consumer of knowledge of all sources." You send a radio message to Geo: Keep doing that, I'll try to distract him. You receive a radio message from Geo: The analyzation is ongoing; 95% of command's processing power is dedicated to analyzing the temporal energy signature, but I am doubtful it will turn up a whole lot. Bombshell had been about to retreat within the relative safety of the tower when he's hit in the back by a missile. And hardly even a second passes before he's caught in the massive blastwave from Onslaught's thermal detonator, which obliterates the balcony he had just been standing on a moment ago. Instead of running inside the control tower like he intended, he's flung in, slamming hard against a computer bank before flopping down to the ground in a smoking heap. "Rrrgh... curse you, wench! Pity for you that you have no idea how WRONG you are!" Then as he stands up and slinks away deeper inside the facility, he calls into his radio, "SHRAPNEL, KICKBACK! We can't hold them off any longer, we must RETREAT!" And whether or not they do so, Bombshell himself transforms into Boll Weevil mode, eating his way through the floor to make his escape. "You'll be seeing us again, PRETTY PRETTY, and NEXT TIME my hold on your mind will last FOREVER!" Massive explosions rock amongst the horde of Insecticons as Onslaught's devastating blasts rock the area. Bits of Insecticon bodies fly left right and center, with no regard to whether they're 'friendly' or not. And the end result is satisfyingly devastating to say the least. There's something to be said about Decepticon efficiency when it comes to dealing with this sort of problem... ...an actual hush falls over the battlefield then. Bits of Insecticon rustling here and there. Disembodied limbs twitching from a pile of corpses. THere are still Insecticons about of course, but they've been scattered and stunned by the blast waves. They're taking time to recover, but at least the 'heart' of the swarm...of BOTH swarms seems to have literally been blown out of them. And Archaeonix is standing -behind- Onslaught. There was no sense of movement, no blurr of speed. Not even a flash of teleportation. It is as if one had blinked, and the Quintesson was there, casually reaching out with one tentacle and sliding it into a juncture in the Combaticon leader's back. "Predicted." he speaks, the Smilodon head turning around to the dominant position. "And accounted for." The tentacle retreats even as the Quint takes one, then two steps back. The perfect distance to avoid any sort of radius for what he left behind in that perfect location on Onslaught's body with completely perfect timing.... Bombshell transforms into his Mechanical Weevil mode. Archaeonix says, "Our time here is concluded. Gather what remnants of your forces are left, my minions. We depart this place, for good." *KABOOM!* Kickback's barely done munching down parts of Onslaught before the explosion hits, nearly frying him then and there! Roasted locust -is- a delicacy in some places, after all. Still, before Cybertron can become one of those places, Kickback perks his antennae, hearing Bombshell's decree. "Agreed!" He rasps, and then springs to the air- transforming again, to shrink down into his tiniest mode, disappearing into the rest of the retreating horde! Locust transforms into its Tiny Insect mode. Shrapnel disappears under a wave of Insecticlones, lightning cracking back up into the sky from the ground and dissipating as the retaliatory fire slams him to the ground and knocks him into a barely-mobile state! He crawls back to his hole and retreats, escorted by a carpet of beetles. Shrapnel converts into his giant stag beetle form. Geo says, "No response, Archaeonix?" Archaeonix says, "Did you really expect one?" Onslaught doesn't even have time to look over his shoulder when he hears Archaeonix's voice. There is no explosion, no burst of energy, Onslaught simply falls from the sky and crashes heavily into the ground. He obviously suffered heavy structural damage and he is not moving at all. Geo says, "Perhaps. My interest in piqued." Archaeonix says, "Of course it is. But course you will not receive one. There are things the children must discover for themselves. You are blessed with the same long lifespans as your creators. Should your race survive, give it time." Hubcap's 'Con says "They never give a simple answer, have you noticed that? Everyone wants to seem so mysterious." While the swarm below is annihilated by Onslaught's thermal detonator, the group around where Needlenose is continues to buzz angrily. There's no sign of the Targetmaster until, with a sudden triumphant burst, an F-16 blasts free of the swarm, covered in scrapes, scratches, and holes thanks to the clones' efforts. His wings are barely functional, with large, torn off pieces missing. Were it not for his Decepticon anti-gravs, there's no way he could remain airborne. Even as he streaks away from the Insecticons, Sunbeam and Zigzag swivel behind him from under his wings, blasting the horde into smithereens with light bursts and lightning bolts. Finally their broken parts fall from the sky to rejoin their companions on the ground. It is a rare thing, but Needlenose doesn't immediately begin talking up a storm. His encounter with the Insecticons have left him weakened, and he's putting all the power he can into staying aloft. Robots in disguise! Needlenose transforms into his F-16XL Jet Fighter mode! Swindle says, "You suck at the evil gloating bit, you know that? No manic ranting, no mad laughter, no pizazz at all. Prehaps you need a self-help course in appropriately applying the macinations of a too-be overloard? It's available on a set of five holo-vid discs, and if you use you credit card now I'll throw a sixth bonus disc in for free." Contrail says, "/Hubcap/." At that point, Geo sets the system to continue to do the analyzing without her in the system. At that, she ejects from the console and transforms to robot mode. She setles herself into one of the chairs and sits with her fingers steepled before her eyes. "What... is this Quintesson's secret?" she mumbles to herself, beginning to do a couple of additional checks that she couldn't within the system: time differential, is it as if time is stopping for the Quintesson to move around? Nah, that wouldn't make sense. Would it? At that point, she begins to go over the battle data manually to see if her theory holds up. Onslaught/NOM - Set. Robotic Praying Mantis is thankful to be spared from the explosion, though she hardly knows it's happening, addled mind leaving her still laying there as a few Insecticon corpses bury her. It's a short while before she finally overcomes the shock, sitting up in her robot mode with woozy expression while looking around, rubbing her head. "They're.. gone?" It takes a few seconds to hit her, Scorn looking more alert. "They're gone!" She scrambles now, digging herself out of the pile of parts, swiveling around in her spot, fists clenching and teeth nearly grinding. "That Quint.. Argh!" How dare he take legends amongst her kin for his own. Oh how she hopes by the end of all of this she gets the chance to run that squid through. Hubcap notices the jig is up, but doesn't quit that easily. "Who?" Standing up straight, Scorn shifts back into sexy robot mode. Giant Bat frowns, sighing. Then turns his head to address Vorath. "Looks like we're stuck with rummaging amongst the debris. Again. As Onslaught sets off the thermal detonator Swindle mimics putting on a pair of sunglasses. "Now -that- is how you exterminate a horde. Destruction so bright you've gotta wear shades." Except as it dies down, the Quint decides to strike a little retribution and send Onslaught crashing to the ground. Cringe. While Swindle's loyalties are... flexible at best, you can't really turn your smoking backside on the guy that puts up with your ... personal endeavours as long as he provides when needed. Swindle lowers to the ground next to Onslaught and crouchs down for a moment to check him over. Then looks up. "He's okay, just a total system overload by the looks up it. He's just going to need a recalibration is all." Swindle gets up... Looks off to one side... then to the other side... "This is for your own good, Boss." And gives Onslaught a thump in the side with his squarish heel. Suddenly an Insecticlone resembling a giant water bug springs from a squirming mass of clones, grabbing a hold of Buzzkill with it's long forearms and trying to puncture her with it's terrifying, needle-shaped mouth. A few swift kicks to the face dislodge it and Buzzkill gets away just in time for Onslaught to drop the bomb (literally.) The immense power of the explosion sends her flying through the air along with a couple hundred other Insecticons until finally landing in a heap amongst her dead brethren. She tries to stand up but quickly realizes her legs were blown clean off her body from the massive explosion. "Damnit," she hisses, dragging herself to the closest Insecticlone body and propping herself up against it as she watches Bombshell and the others retreat. "Cowards! Traitorous cowards! This isn't over!" She shakes a fist. F-35B Lightning II wonders what new menaces these Lazarus Insecticons and their master will bring upon the Empire. The Empire will weather it, of course, and they already took the harddrives out the Quintesson shuttle, so they're just losing one shuttle, some dead Insecticons, that raffic controller, and whatever it takes to repair everyone. And some SAN points. But it's not a super-bad loss. It's not like... Buzzkill died, or anything. That would tank the Empire's Strategic Honey Reserves. It probably would have been okay if Zig-Zag died. For now, she just circles to keep overwatch. ROBOT ROLL CALL "We are leaving. Never to look on this accursed place again, if I am fortunate." The ancient Quintesson begins a withdrawl along with what remains of the swarm that came with him. The insecticlones loyal to him huddling nearby to protect him with their own bodies if needbe, though it seems to be redundant. Standing on the backs of no less than four of them, Archaeonix is then carried aloft, back towards the ship and disappearing into an upper hatch, which ratchets closed a moment later, as the last of any insecticons leaving with him are sealed aboard. The air begins to thrumm heavily as the ship's engines build to a thunderous roar, and then slowly...oh so slowly, the Quintesson warship begins to lift off. Starting into its corkscrew spin as it rises higher and higher, gaining speed with each passing moment as it shrinks into the sky. And soon all that is left in its wake is the descending cloud of spent exhaust. And the launchpad LITTERED with the dead, dying and wounded insecticon bodies by the hundreds and hundreds. Out of a pile of rubble, the dozer-Decepticon trooper slowly emerges, rubbing his head and glancing around in bewilderment. "...oh slaggit, -I'm- gonna have to clean up this mess, aren't I?" Onslaughtsystems reboot and the light comes back into his optics as he slowly sits while holding his head, "Hrrmmm...the pain... what happened?" Archaeonix's signature on the channel finally seems to wink out, as apparently the ship has taken him out of range. The channels are safe again...for now. With a mumble of frustration, Geo stands from where she was sitting and moves to the observation screens, setting them to the localized scanners at the landing pad, getting visuals on the individuals still left there and the Quintesson ship taking off. Without the space scanners, she can't plot the trajectory -- or een attempt to plot the hyperspace window trajectory. She shakes her head and moves to the external hatch, taking a moment to set the system to record EVERY ounce of data she's getting out of the temporal analysis. Then she hits the hatch and begins to fly towards the landing pad. F-16XL Jet Fighter fires his proton missiles at the retreating Quintesson ship, but they both just deflect harmlessly against the vessel's shields. Needlenose and his companions are too tired for even a smartass comment as he dejectedly watches the Quint and his minions escape Cybertron. Slowly, the F-16 turns back towards the Imperial Spaceport. Contrail says, "Medical, prepare for... excessive amounts of incoming." Onslaught says, "I think...I can make it...to the medical center...by myself." "Onslaught, Onslaugh!!!" comes a cry. Eventually, Americon runs up to Onslaught, holding up a present. "I found your present, sir!" But then, mini-cockroach insecticons devour the packaging from within (along with whatever was inside) and begin to crawl all over Americon. "AHHH! AHHH! That's not your present at all! Oh Primus aahhhhh!" He runs off into the distance, screaming and flailing. Swindle offers Onslaught a helping hand up. As much as he can since the commander is like twice his height once he's standing. "That space-squid tried to stab you in the back, so to speak. Your systems temporarily flucuated." He makes no comment about the re-'boot'. Instead he flips open his comm again. "Deadweight? Do you have those storage bins ready?... yeah... yeah... Get your aft out here, and bring a reload of photon missiles while you're at it." Swindle pauses a moment, lowering the comm and covering it with his other hand as he turns his attention to the other Decepticons. "Anyone else need an ammo reload while I'm on the line?" Buzzkill says, "I will require assistance." On the plus side, the Insecticon swarm in the area (what's left of it) seems to have calmed down again. Swindle says, "How's your grenade stock, Buzzkill?" Buzzkill says, "Low." Onslaught accepts Swindle's aid and gets back on his feet, "I don't know what kind of weapon he used but... the pain...". He looks around, "Well at least we've driven him off along with his lackeys. We need to make sure Polyhex is secured...then I'll need to reload and get some repairs..." Swindle motions at his comm. "Already working on it, boss." For all his vices Swindle is, if nothing else, efficient. Floating down and landing with a dull clank, Geo looks at the gathered Decepticons with a very annoyed facial expression. "That stupid Quintesson," she says with annoyance, and then produces one of her geothermal energy scanners from subspace and wires it into her forearm via cables. "I am going to break his temporal theory, and that way I can take a missile and shove it so far up his afterburner..." And with that, she begins to float around the area and scan. As she goes around though, she lands nearby Onslaught and the others, "I apologize for being unable to break his temporal advantage." Swindle says, "Photon Missiles, Grenades, anyone else?" Geo says, "Galvcannon. I need one." Mindwipe says, "sighs heavily. "Very well, I can help medical. Bring souvenirs." Swindle says, "And I already called in clean-up." Scorn says, "Thankfully I wasn't hurt as much. I'll remain here and.. scavenge a bit." Archaeonix has left. Buzzkill says, "If you find my legs I would be extremely grateful if you brought them back to me." Scorn says, "Hmm.... Fine." The bat unfolds into a body, and Vorath folds up into the head of Mindwipe.